Welcome! This blog is for members of the Minneapolis ECFE Parents Council (formerly known as the "PAC"). Here you will find minutes, updates, links, and discussions relevant to the Parents Council. Take a look around the site or click on the tabs below for detailed information.

Saturday, November 20

Meeting Minutes 11.18.10

Kori asked everyone to update their contact info either on the paper she passed around or directly online.

LAC update: Budget Task Force is forming again, parents are strongly encouraged to attend the training and participate. Learn about how funds are allocated and make a difference in how ECFE is funded. Two dates in January, either 1/11-12 or 1/25-27 (two of the dates). Confirmation of dates soon. Evening meetings, childcare and dinner provided. NICOLE expressed interest. TRISH will email further details.

Online payments will be accepted for ECFE starting in the spring, but guinea pigs are needed to test the system now. CATHERINE, BRAD and DAN volunteered to pay their winter dues online. Call Ginger at 612-668-2147 to receive details, she works Tu/Th/F.

Barnes & Noble Book Fair supporting the North PAC this Saturday, 11/20, 10am-2pm, Calhoun Village location.

Treasurer's Report: We have about $1900, but Trish did not have the data on the Chinook Book sales. TCF cards have been given to the sites for their portion of the funds raised from books sold at their sites. A $25 Kowalski's gift card was passed from Trish to Nicole for Gingerbread this year (it was given on the day of Gingerbread last year).

Gingerbread: Saturday, 12/11, 10am-noon, Burroughs, $3/house suggested donation. Flyer has been approved, but is not out in classes yet. (Needs to be out ASAP.) Discussion of and delegation of tasks (this minute-recorder didn't record who's all doing what, but NICOLE did and she's in charge). Volunteer shifts are 9-11 and 11-1, sign-up sheet was passed around and filled up.

Friday night set-up is 12/10, 4-6pm, Burroughs. Childcare will be provided. Sign-up passed around for that too.

MELD parent facilitators: Kori left the room and Christy/Catherine led the discussion of payment to the MELD parent facilitators. It was agreed that PAC would provide $100 per facilitator (4 people, $400) in December 2010 and revisit the discussion in the spring with the hope of providing another $100 for each facilitator at that time. It was noted that PAC funds are lower now than they were last year, but fundraisers (t-shirts) are still coming up. CATHERINE will get names/addresses of all parent facilitators to Trish. (Official motion made by CHRISTY, DAN seconded.)

T-shirts: Dan reported that it's going to cost too much money to have sample t-shirts made up for parents to see before ordering. He suggested having plain t-shirt available with appropriately sized paper logos pinned to the shirts and inviting the parents to use their imaginations. All agreed. Suggestion that ELISE can size the logos for the shirts? Suggestion that ELISE and DAN work on the order form together? (KORI has the catalog to give to Elise.) Another discussion of colors ensued, it was ultimately decided that kids shirts would be orange with navy print, the ladies shirt would be a dark gray/black ringer with black print and Dan would search for a gray/black ringer for the unisex/guys shirt instead of the gray/navy one he found so it could also have black print (save beaucoup bucks by going with one ink color for both adult shirts). Intention of having order form done by the second week of winter term.

Preschool Fair: 52 families came despite the snow! (80 last year) All schools came except 2. Kris suggested that maybe Preschool Fair should not continue because all info can be found online--group disagreed and stressed personal connections and conversations are the key.

Scholastic: Suzanne reported that it was a lot more work than she anticipated. Tony is the official contact because Scholastic required that it be a teacher and not a parent. Not doing a December order. More in the spring.

December Meeting: Thursday, 12/16 we bowl! CATHERINE will send out the details. No childcare, but lots of fun.